AUSTRALIA
Man deported for ‘depravity’
A Malaysian tourist was yesterday kicked out of the country after videos showing “extreme sexual depravity and horrific violence” were found on his smartphone during a routine baggage check at Perth Airport. The 43-year-old man, who was not named, arrived on a flight from Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, when the shocking material was discovered. He was held in immigration detention and sent home yesterday after his tourist visa was canceled and his smartphone confiscated. Australian Border Force regional commander for Western Australia Mark Wilson said the images were abhorrent and contravened government regulations, without going into details of what was depicted. “Videos depicting extreme sexual depravity and acts of horrific violence are not acceptable in our community and anyone caught engaging in this behavior risks forfeiting their right to be here,” Wilson said.
CHINA
Industrial accident kills 19
A blast in an industrial park in a southwestern province has killed 19 people and injured 12 others, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. The blast occurred at a Yibin Hengda Technology Co chemical plant in an industrial park in the city of Yibin in Sichuan Province at 6:30pm on Thursday, Xinhua said. Xinhua quoted the Jiangan County Government as saying that the fire was put out yesterday morning and the injured were in a stable condition.
INDONESIA
Papuan leaders protest raid
Papua Province leaders have protested a military and police operation against separatists that they said endangered the lives of villagers in the remote easternmost province. Nduga Regent Yairus Gwijangge said security forces on Wednesday fired on Alguru village with helicopter sorties in an attempt to root out independence fighters they believed were based there. “Thank God there was no reports of casualties, but we regret that they did not warn us before launching the attacks,” Gwijangge said. “It caused panic among villagers,” he said, adding that he had complained to the army and police paramilitary forces. “The forces have to be withdrawn,” he added. Yunus Wonda, the head of Papua Province’s parliament, condemned the operation and yesterday called on security forces to leave the occupied village, saying that villagers were “traumatized.” An Amnesty International investigation released earlier this month said the police and military are responsible for at least 95 unlawful killings in Papua and West Papua provinces since 2010, including targeted slayings of activists. No casualties have been reported. Local police chief Yan Pieter Reba said security forces were responding to attacks by gunmen that killed paramilitary police and civilians.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
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